The Post-office Box has received a long letter from little Johnnie F., of Warrenton, Missouri. It is all about a bird's nest with some dear little eggs in it, which he has found in the orchard near his house, and which nobody is going to disturb until the birdies are hatched and flown away. We can not read one word of his little letter, but his papa assures us that it is the whole story of the finding of the birdies' home, and Master Johnnie himself has drawn a picture of the nest with its five little eggs.
Eden, Georgia.
I wish some of the little girls who write to the Post-office Box would tell me some of their games. I am nine years old. I live in the country, and I have two little sisters and one brother. One of my sisters is a dear little baby, not much more than a year old. She can say a few words.
Fairley C.
New York City.
I think what are called sea-beans are those large seeds known as ox-eyes. They are generally dark brown in color, but reddish and gray ones are also found. They do not grow in the sea, but in pods on large trees, which are found everywhere throughout the American tropics. They are very abundant, and the fact that they are often found strewn along sea-beaches, where they have drifted with the tide, may account for their name of sea-bean.
As they are very hard, they are capable of taking a high polish, and are often made into ornaments of different kinds.
In Cuba, where these beans are very abundant, they are the object of certain curious superstitions among the native Indian population. They are called ojos de buey (ox-eyes), or cayahabos, a word, the significance of which is evidently key-bean, the trees often growing on the keys and coral islands. The Indian women of Cuba boil these beans in a weak solution of ashes in water until they become soft enough to pierce with a stout wire, when they string them and make rosaries. They also string a bean to hang around the necks of their babies, believing that it will act as a charm against the evil-eye.
These beans grow very large in Cuba—as large as a good-sized horse-chestnut—and are so very abundant that in many places they cover the forest floor.
R. R.
Letters about the sea-bean have also been received from Charles Uhler, E. Rowland, and others.